The Weakley Film News 3-9-2018

In this week’s “What, already?” story, actor Michael Trevino, who starred in The Vampire Diaries, will next star in the CW’s reboot of Roswell.

I guess I’m more befuddled by a Roswell reboot, but whatever. Trevino will star in the role previously played by Nick Weschler.

Based on the Roswell High book series by Melinda Metz, the pilot revolves around the daughter (Grey’s Anatomy‘s Jeanine Mason) of undocumented immigrants who, after reluctantly returning to her tourist-trap hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush, who is now a police officer: He’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life. She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.

Well, if that doesn’t say “The CW” then I don’t know what does.

Trevino will take on the role of Kyle Valenti, the popular son of the town sheriff who questions his carefree outlook on life after learning the terrifying truth of his family’s legacy. Nick Wechsler played the role in the original series.

In this week’s “Yes, another TV show” story, The second season of Marvel’s Luke Cage will premiere on Netflix on June 22.

Fans of the comic book hero will certainly appreciate the announcement after waiting over a year for new episodes. The first season hit the streaming site in September of 2016.

The second season will pick up after Luke Cage has cleared his name. He has become a celebrity on the streets of Harlem and gained a reputation. Cage will face a new enemy and be forced to battle the blurred lines between hero and villain.

The series stars Mike Colter, Simone Missick, Alfre Woodard, Theo Rossi, Mustafa Shakir, Gabrielle Dennis, and Rosario Dawson, who also appeared in Marvel’s Daredevil. Mahershala Ali appeared in a few episodes last season as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes. Lucy Liu directed the premiere of the new 13-episode long season.

In this week’s “Yeah, MORE TV” story, FX and Marvel just released the first trailer for Legion season 2, and it looks just as crazy, scary, and beautiful as the first season. In a recent interview, showrunner Noah Hawley said, “If the first year was the story of an insane man in a sane world, now I’m looking at David as a sane man in an insane world.”

In season 2, we’re all finally going to meet the Shadow King, aka Amahl Farouk, is his original form, after teasing it out throughout all of Season 1, played by Homeland’s Navid Negahban. Jean Smart as Melanie Bird, Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace, Katie Aselton as David’s sister Amy, Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk, Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk and Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker (now dead?) all return to the series for the second season.

And this time, we’ll get 10 episodes unlike the first season’s 8 episodes. Legion season 2 will debut in April 3.

YAY!

In this week’s “Ok, just one more” story, Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan) from The Hunger Games, will star in Amazon’s straight-to-series show The Boys.

Written by Kripke based on the comic book by Garth Ennis (Preacher) & Darick Robertson and directed by Goldberg & Rogen, The Boys is set in a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame. It revolves around a group of vigilantes known informally as “the boys,” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty.

Quaid will play Hughie. After the death of his girlfriend by fast-moving Superhero A-Train (Jessie Usher), Hughie is approached by a mysterious “government agent” named Billy Butcher, who drags Hughie into a covert war against a group of Superheroes who are not what everyone thinks they are.

This stuff is pretty violent if I remember correctly. Better put your grown-up pants on for this one.

The upcoming gangster movie is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses, the story of hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran. Scorsese’s approach is to set the film in two time periods and digitally de-age stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.

Well, that’s going to take a lot of time. We still won’t likely see it until 2019 sometime. Netflix will likely want to give it an awards push, so look for it in late 2019, realistically.

In this week’s “Well if THEY’RE moving their date up…” story, Rampage, Dwayne Johsons’s monster action pic, has been moved up a week due to Marvel’s moving of The Avengers : Infinity War. instead of April 20, Rampage will now release on April 13, 2018. They obviously – and smartly – want to keep two weeks between their release and Infinity War.

Warner Bros., which is releasing the movie through its New Line division, has high hopes for “Rampage.” Johnson has underlined his status as a box office superstar through “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” The action-comedy over-performed during the past two months for Sony with $930 million in worldwide grosses.

In Rampage, Johnson portrays a primatologist who keeps people at a distance, but shares a bond with George, a silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment mutates the gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size — along with other similarly altered animals across North America, destroying everything in their path.

In this week’s “Ninth one is the charm” story, legendary composer John Williams says that Star Wars: Episode IX will be his last star Wars film.

“We know J.J. Abrams is preparing one [‘Star Wars’ movie] now that I will hopefully do next year for him,” Williams said on radio station KUSC. “I look forward it. It will round out a series of nine, that will be quite enough for me.”

“Episode IX” will be directed by Abrams and will serve as the conclusion of the latest Star Wars trilogy. Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac and John Boyega are expected to return when the film hits theaters on December 20, 2019.

After doing all of the Star Wars trilogies, I think he’s done his part.

In this week’s “Reunited and it feels so good” story, actress Elizabeth Banks is reunitiing with director James Gunn for a untitled horror film.

Bank and Gunn worked together on Gunn’s first feature film, Slither, which also starred Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker. Gunn, the filmmaker behind the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, is producing the movie with The H Collective, which is fully financing and producing it.

Brian and Mark Gunn wrote the script for the project. The logline is being kept in the dark for now.

David Yarovesky, who co-wrote and directed the 2015 horror movie The Hive, is sitting behind the camera for the project, which is eyeing a production start in the spring.

In this week’s “Will the real director please stand up?” story, actor Karl Urban has spilled the beans about his film Dredd. turns out, writer Alex Garland actually directed most of the film.

The project (Dredd) originated with writer and producer Alex Garland, who started working on the script while in post-production on his Danny Boyle sci-fi film Sunshine, and reports swirled that Garland had a strong hand in bringing the finished version of Dredd to the screen.

Speaking with JoBlo, Urban credits much of the film’s success directly to Garland:

“I would love to have the opportunity to play Dredd again, but if it doesn’t happen then I’m happy with the fact that we’ve made a film that has become a cult classic and that people have discovered over time. A huge part of the success of Dredd is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don’t realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie.”

The production of Dredd was curious to say the least, as the film’s credited director Pete Travis was reportedly “prohibited” from participating in the editing process due to creative disagreements with the film’s producers and executives. Things went so far as to Garland potentially seeking a co-director credit, but Garland and Davis eventually released a joint statement claiming they had agreed to “an unorthodox collaboration” before production began, that Travis would remain involved, and that Garland would not be seeking a co-director credit.

But now Urban has vocalized what many had been hearing for years, that Garland did in fact direct much of Dredd himself and was likely the main creative force on that film. this comes as no surprise when I think about how good that film is, and how inferior Pete Travis’s other films are that I’ve seen (Vantage Point, The Gunman).

In this week’s “What to avoid” story, Michael Bay has found his next two projects. Sources tell Variety he has lined up “6 Underground and “Robopocalypse as his next two projects.

“6 Underground is a spec written by Deadpool and Deadpool 2 scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.

The action movie is based on an original idea from Wernick and Reese, who will also executive produce. Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger will produce 6 Underground along with Bay.

Plot details are currently being kept under wraps. It is slated to go into production this summer with Skydance for a summer 2019 release.

Bay is also in talks to reunite with Steven Spielberg, who hand picked him to direct Transformers, to bring Robopocalypse to life.

Based on the science fiction novel by Daniel H. Wilson, the film is set after a robot uprising.

At one point, Spielberg intended to helm Robopocalypse, but scheduling conflicts forced him to continue to push it off. The iconic director says he has always been fascinated Robopocalypse, but has not been able to find time to direct it himself. The handoff makes Bay the perfect fit, since it was Spielberg who handpicked him to take over the Transformers franchise, and let’s face it, they sound like pretty much the same premise.

In this week’s “Never stop saying “I’ll be back”…” story, the Terminator reboot has added Mackenzie Davis to the cast, joining Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Tim Miller is directing, with James Cameron and Skydance’s David Ellison producing. Skydance is also financing the pic.

Billy Ray has signed on to polish the script that is based on a story conceived by Cameron, Miller, and Ellison.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, although Cameron has said that the film will be a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day since he played no part in the recent installments.

According to insiders, Davis would be one of the new faces of rebooted franchise, in the vein of Schwarzenegger’s robotic assassin. Miller and Cameron are still looking for the protagonist who would take over for Hamilton’s character. Sources say Davis has been the studio and Miller’s top choice for a while, but the casting needed sign off from Cameron, who is currently filming the Avatar sequels.

The pic is set to hit theaters on July 26, 2019.

In this week’s “Before the Spranos” story, New Line Cinema has just picked up the rights to The Many Saints of Newark, a feature film script written by David Chase that will serve as a prequel to his iconic TV series, The Sopranos.

The film takes place in the 1960s when riots swept through Newark, NJ, and conflicts between African-American and Italian residents were at their worst, especially among the gangsters. Several characters from the “Sopranos” are expected to appear in the film, though New Line would not disclose further plot details.

Lawrence Konner, who worked on The Sopranos with Chase, is listed as co-writer for the project. Chase will also produce the film and be involved in selecting the director. Chase Films’ Nicole Lambert will serve as Executive Producer.

In this week’s “a Nicholas Cage film we should see” story, RLJE Films has acquired all U.S. rights to the Nicolas Cage action-thriller Mandy, the company announced Thursday.

Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow) wrote and directed the film, which premiered at January’s Sundance Film Festival.

RLJE Films plans a summer theatrical release for the film, which also stars Andrea Riseborough (Battle of the Sexes) and Linus Roache (Vikings).

The film follows outsiders Red Miller and Mandy Bloom who lead a loving and peaceful existence until their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed by a cult led by the sadistic Jeremiah Sand. Red is then catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.

“The best reviewed movie at Sundance is also one of Cage’s most extraordinary performances, reinvigorating our love and appreciation of him,” said Mark Ward, Chief Acquisitions Officer at RLJE Films. “Panos’ is a truly visionary filmmaker and we are beyond excited to unleash Mandy to the masses.”

Wow, ok. They have certainly piqued my interest. An “extraordinary” performance form Cage? Who knows in what context, but I’m in.

Many fans scratched their heads when news first broke that Martin Scorsese, who has eschewed superhero films in the past, would be a producer of the film. his involvement makes more sense given his work on 1982’s King of Comedy, which starred Robert De Niro as a deluded comedian who can’t catch a break. The Joker origin story will include nods to that film, insiders told TheWrap.

Joaquin Phoenix is close to a deal to play the Joker in Phillips’ film, which will show audiences laughing at the Joker instead of with him. The film is eyeing a mid- to late-2018 production start, but an insider with knowledge of the project said it could be delayed by rewrites, which are currently underway by Phillips and 8 Mile veteran Scott Silver.

The project is expected to be part of a yet-to-be-announced new banner under Warner Bros.’ DC Films that will expand the comic-book canon beyond such familiar DC Extended Universe characters as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Jared Leto’s Joker, who appeared in last year’s Suicide Squad.

DC Comics routinely publish stories outside the established DC timeline, reimagining characters with tweaks to their origins and settings without altering the DC canon. The new films could do the same.

The idea of the Joker as a failed comedian isn’t new. In the dark, grotesque 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke, Alan Moore wrote the Joker as a struggling stand-up who snaps after “one bad day” and turns to crime to feed his family.

Through a series of horrific events, he becomes a sadistic super villain obsessed with Batman. (The Joker has had several iterations and origin stories since he debuted in Batman No. 1 in 1940; Batman himself debuted the previous year in Detective Comics No. 27.)

Phillips is best known for writing and directing the Hangover franchise for the studio. He last wrote, directed and produced War Dogs, starring Miles Teller and Jonah Hill.

Silver’s recent credits include The Finest Hours. He also wrote the upcoming crime drama White Boy Rick.

In this week’s “Vin Diesel in an action film? Shocker.” story, Sony Pictures has closed a deal with Vin Diesel to star in the studio’s sci-fi/action movie Bloodshot, an adaptation of the Valiant comic book series.

Dave Wilson, the longtime collaborator of Deadpool and the upcoming Terminator reboot helmer Tim Miller and creative director at their Blur Studios, is aboard make his feature directing debut with the script from Arrival Oscar-winning scribe Eric Heisserer. We’re hearing the pic will be in the tone of the classic 1980s tentpoles like Robocop, Terminator and Total Recall. Sony is being aggressive with this one, a franchise play, and principal photography starts in July.

Bloodshot is a central character in the Valiant Expanded Universe, composed of thousands of characters embodying various genres, tones and demographic groups — ordinary people in extraordinary situations rather than gods and demi-gods.

The Bloodshot series, comprised of more 110 issues with more than 7.5 million copies sold, centers on Ray Garrison, aka Bloodshot. Brought back from the dead by Rising Spirit Technologies through the use of nanotechnology and suffering total memory loss, Ray struggles to reconnect with who he was while learning what sort of weapon he has become, with the help of a group of other augmented combatants (called Chainsaw).

In this week’s “Now you’re just getting greedy” story, director Danny Boyle looked like he wasn’t going to make the Bond 25 film, instead choosing a musical All You Need Is Love.

However, according to a tweet from Daily Mail writer, Baz Bamigboye, Danny Boyle is still the front-runner for Bond 25. This is all contingent on a couple things, albeit a couple major things. First, the screenplay by writer John Hodge has to be approved. Then the Bond brain trust of Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and Bond himself, Daniel Craig have to be willing to push production to later this year. Bamigboye says that they are “willing” to do so.

Why later this year? Well, news recently broke that Boyle was looking at a comedy/musical as his next directorial effort. While, at the time, this news was seen as something that could be done next year, after Bond, it looks like Boyle wants this film to be first, and he’s found his leading lady. According to Variety, actress Lily James is in talks to be the lead for the film, All You Need is Love, directed by Boyle.

Gotta admit, though, Boyle is a good director and him doing Bond 25 isn’t a bad idea.

In this week’s “Denis and Dune” story, director Denis Villeneuve is prepping to make his adaptation of Dune, based on the Frank Herbert books, and he says it will be at least two films.

Villeneuve dropped a quick update on his forthcoming Dune adaptation. “Dune will probably take two years to make,” the director said. “The goal is to make two films, maybe more.” Do we have potential series or franchise on our hands? This ambitious film just got a little more complex.

This makes sense seeing as the book is dense and complex. In this case, stretching a film adaptation of a book into two films is a good idea.

In this week’s “Sequel!” story, the Oscar nominated Call Me By Your Name is getting a sequel.

Director Luca Guadagnino said last fall that he would like to follow the characters later in life by adapting and updating an epilogue from André Aciman’s novel. James Ivory, who became the oldest competitive Oscar winner in history last Sunday by winning Best Adapted Screenplay, has said that he knows nothing about the sequel plans.

However, Guadagnino was actively talking up the project over the past week, sharing details about a 1990-set plot against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis and following the former lovers around the world. He added that he planned to have Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer return to play their characters, allowing them to age in real time, similar to Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy.

As it turns out, the actors got the pitch, too. “Dude, he broke down the whole script for us,” Hammer told IndieWire during a brief conversation in Austin, where he was in town to be honored by the Texas Film Awards at the Austin Film Society’s annual fundraiser. “I mean, it’s not a finished script, but he’s got all the ideas for it. Luca’s all gung-ho about it, and by the way, if Luca’s doing it, I think we’re all gung-ho about it.”

Hammer said that while he expected to remain a major figure in the story, he would be willing to return for a supporting part, too. “You know, the experience of making the first one was so pure and beautiful that it wouldn’t matter how big my role was,” he said. “If the same people are involved, I’d do it all over again.”

And in this week’s “Woah! – Chapter 7” story, Joey Lawrence and his wife Chandie, have filed for bankruptcy.

E! News has obtained the court documents filed eight months ago in July 2017 by the Melissa & Joey alum and his wife.

It is stated in the documents that the couple, who has two children together, owes $88,000 in back taxes and has $132,000 worth of credit card debt. At the time of the filing the couple listed their total liabilities at $355,517.27.

Joey writes in the filing that he has been an actor for 35 years and states that his total monthly income is $6,966. Chandie is listed in the court documents as unemployed.

The documents also show a major change in the actor’s income from 2015 to 2016. In 2015, Joey made just over $534,000. The following year, he made about $58,400. This drop in income could be a result of his show, Melissa & Joey, being canceled in 2015 after four seasons.

Gee, ya think?

At the time of the filing, the couple stated in the documents that they had $60 in cash on hand and about $8,000 total in their bank accounts. Before Joey and Chandie filed for bankruptcy, they sold personal items on eBay and at Buffalo Exchange.

While their bankruptcy is still pending, the couple did have their debt discharged.

…Wait, WHAT? They had their debt DISCHARGED? I guess the I.R.S. loves Joey Lawrence so much they decided to just eliminate their debt. How nice for them.

Thanks for stopping by, and come back next week to see what more nonsense we dig up!

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Author: Neil Weakley

Hi. I'm Neil. I didn't go to film school so I don't really have to justify any of my opinions about why I like a film or not. So there. But I worked in film for a number of years, so I have hands-on experience. That, and I've known Chris Mancini for, like, 25 years or so. It really is all who you know. :)
I'm mostly, but not exclusively, a fan of sci-fi, comic book movies, horror, comedies, and weird independent films. If you're an average movie-goer and want to know what another average movie-goer thinks without all the "feelm school" gobbley-gook, hop on over to www.comedyfilmnerds.com and look for me, Neil T. Weakley. I won't steer you wrong. Or follow me on Twitter @FilmNerdNeil.